Chapter 485: Chapter 456 I Smell It_1
Following the direction of Zhu Xingxing’s pointed finger, Zhou Ning looked over.
On the shoes, there were two droplet-shaped stains, small in size, but both were nestled in the seams at the front edges of the shoes, lightly dusted with dirt. The colorful patterns on the shoes made them less conspicuous.
Seeing that everyone was just looking without much reaction, Zhu Xingxing said anxiously,
"Ah, you can tell that big men don’t like sweet drinks. I like to drink milk tea and dairy, and I often spill them on myself. These kinds of stains will slightly yellow over time. I think these are milk stains."
Mr. Zhao was somewhat skeptical and came over to take a look.
"You also said that girls like sweet drinks. She’s a girl too. It’s normal for her to spill on her shoes, right? Moreover, at Zhang Bo’s place, we carefully examined the site and didn’t find any shoe prints other than slippers. If she had gone in wearing these, how could there not be any footprints?"
Zhu Xingxing lifted the shoe and sniffed it, showing no concern that it was a shoe, and then said firmly,
"I stick to my view. I believe these two drops are milk stains, and from formula milk at that. Although I wasn’t at the scene, I trust my sense of smell. This kind of milk is very sweet and fragrant. Don’t believe me? Smell it."
Zhou Ning waved his hand.
"Bag the shoes and take them back for sampling and comparison. Thoroughly investigate the room again to see if there are other traces left."
Zhu Xingxing tilted her chin up towards Mr. Zhao with Zhou Ning’s approval, obviously delighted. Everyone started to search the room separately. One could distinctly feel that the room had been thoroughly cleaned, the dried marks of mopping the floor were still on the ground.
Zhou Ning didn’t go to the other rooms, but instead stood in front of the shoe cabinet with gloves on. At this time, the entrance door was open, and Liu Yufei and Ye Chengchen were standing in front of the elevator. She could see everything happening on this side.
Turning her head, Zhou Ning glanced at Ye Chengchen, who quickly averted her gaze when she saw him looking.
Zhou Ning turned his head and thought for a moment. Ye Chengchen’s evasive glance was a sign of her trying hard to control herself; she was very nervous. So, did that mean there was something where he was standing that she wanted to hide?
Or perhaps she had left in such a hurry that she forgot to cover it up?
With this thought, Zhou Ning opened the shoe cabinet, which was filled with shoes. The two large coat-closet-like cabinets were packed to the brim. It was impressive that Mr. Zhao managed to find that pair of chunky sneakers at a glance.
After scanning up and down without spotting anything unusual, Zhou Ning pulled out the middle drawers of the shoe cabinet—two drawers, one filled with brushes, shoe polish and cleaning cloths, and the other with various bags, silver ion deodorizers, and a few boxes.
He lifted the lids of the boxes, and inside both were bags of different fragrances.
You have to say, the life of a model is indeed exquisite, even down to the variety of shoe deodorizers. As Zhou Ning flipped open the last box, a bundle of shoe covers inside caught his attention.
Zhou Ning suddenly turned and looked toward Ye Chengchen at the elevator entrance. Ye Chengchen was also looking down, sneakily glancing at Zhou Ning. In that moment, her prying gaze was caught by him.
It seems that this was one of the reasons she didn’t want the place to be searched. If the family had guest slippers, why were there so many shoe covers? And it appeared only one pack was opened.
Zhou Ning didn’t say anything—shoe covers, chunky sneakers, footprints, milk stains...
Could it be that Ye Chengchen, in disguise, had gone to the 15th floor, waited for Mrs. Zhang to leave, then went to Zhang Bo’s home? In order to avoid police searching and to leave no traces, she might have worn the shoe covers inside the slippers. As long as the slippers were big enough, such an operation was possible.
But how to explain the milk stains?
Zhou Ning furrowed his brows and closed his eyes slightly, trying hard to shift the scene in his mind.
Before him was now the entryway of Zhang Bo’s home.
Looking down, the chunky sneakers wearing the shoe covers stepped on top of the slippers right after entering, shuffling into the living room’s baby playpen area. Stepping in, she picked up the boy, but the shoes were too big, and the child was crying. The child’s bottle of milk was knocked over.
The milk poured into the inside of the slipper, but the outside remained largely unstained. Carrying the child at the waist, she headed straight for the bedroom.
Then, carrying a child each, they rushed towards the master bedroom, aiming for the window to throw them out. However, the boy struggled fiercely, and just before being released, he was already head down. A hand with long fingernails attempted to adjust the direction, directly grabbing the boy’s upper thigh. But by then, the child had already slipped from the grasp.
In the midst of panic, the person shuffling in the slippers quickly ran to the door, took off the slippers, and then noticed the outside of the shoe cover was a bit damp. However, he didn’t pay it any mind and pulled off the shoe covers, clutching them in hand, and quickly left.
Zhou Ning opened his eyes, silent. Mr. Zhao and the others had finished their search and came out, seeing Zhou Ning’s serious expression, they were puzzled. Zhou Ning shut the shoe cabinet door.
"Did you find anything?"
Mr. Zhao held up several evidence bags, introducing them as he spoke,
"We’ve extracted residues from inside the vacuum cleaner and the mop, also found some short, curly hairs that seem to be pubic hair, and collected lip prints from the edge of a cup, not with lipstick. Didn’t find anything else."
Zhou Ning nodded, understanding Mr. Zhao’s implication. He glanced at the hairs, which were likely to be from a male, and simply waved his hand.
"Go directly to Zhang Bo’s place on the 15th floor, let Liu Yufei and the others wait here. Let’s go!"
With that, they left the apartment. Liu Yufei naturally heard their conversation and hurriedly said,
"We’ve already sealed off Zhang Bo’s place. Ma Liang is keeping watch at the door, just go straight up."
Zhou Ning didn’t waste words, leading the group not taking the elevator, but climbing the stairs this time. As the security door closed, they could still hear Ye Chengchen’s voice, her sharp tone protesting continuously, but nothing could stop her.
Mr. Zhao edged closer to Zhou Ning and blinked, asking,
"Zhou Xiaozhou, did you discover something?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"It’s not a discovery, rather a speculation. During the ascent, take a careful look for the footprints of Ye Chengchen’s dad shoes. Look for a photo, didn’t you say that this footprint was also found on the staircase of the fifteenth floor?"
"Right, I just compared them. The size and pattern match perfectly, but that doesn’t prove anything. It only shows that Ye Chengchen has stood there."
Seeing that Zhou Ning didn’t speak, Mr. Zhao stopped talking as well. He, along with Mr. Yang and Mr. Wang, searched carefully and indeed found several of Ye Chengchen’s shoe prints on the corner of the stairs.
By the time they reached the fifteenth floor, Mr. Zou and Mr. Pang were already panting, and Mr. Zhao gave them a disdainful look.
"I tell you to exercise a bit. We just climbed seven floors and you’re already panting like this. Are you guys okay, or is it that you have weak kidneys?"
Zhou Ning slapped Mr. Zhao, who then closed his mouth. Sure enough, at the entrance of the staircase, they saw four or five shoe prints circled with chalk by Mr. Zhao. It seemed that it was rare for people to come here; even after a day, the chalk marks were still intact.
Zhou Ning stood behind the shoe prints, craning his neck and looking towards the fifteenth floor elevator doors. The two apartment doors and the elevator door were in clear view; indeed, it was a very hidden corner, where one could notice any movements on the floor at any time.
"Is 1501 unoccupied?"
"Ah, the owner of 1501 is abroad. We contacted the property management the same day and asked about it."
Zhou Ning pushed open the door to arrive in front of apartment 1502, with Ma Liang quickly standing up from his small stool.
"Director Zhou, you’re here. I’ll open the door for you."
"Did the Zhang family come to make a fuss?"
Ma Liang shook his head.
"Mr. Zhang and Mrs. Zhang came to take some things, and I had someone fetch them for them. Some neighbors came to peek, but were sent away. No one else came around."
As he spoke, the door had already been opened, and a faint fishy smell wafted out.
When they had entered the day before, perhaps because the windows were open, they hadn’t noticed this smell. Mr. Zhao rubbed his nose and bumped into Zhu Xingxing.
"What about it, do you smell the fishy odor?"
Zhu Xingxing gave him a look.
"I’m not stupid; how could I not smell such a pungent fishy odor? I also smell milk, a very familiar milk scent."
Zhu Xingxing hadn’t come to the first crime scene yesterday, so Zhou Ning was somewhat surprised to hear this.
"Alright, then let’s start another thorough search. Check the slippers carefully to see if any have milk on them, and I’m not talking about the soles, but the inside of the shoes."
"Inside?"
Zhu Xingxing kicked Mr. Zhao and said through gritted teeth:
"However the boss says to do it, that’s how we’ll do it. Why so much talk? Hurry up and investigate, while I smell the shoes."
Mr. Zhao rubbed his nose and seriously donned his gear to enter the room. Zhu Xingxing and Zhou Ning were left at the door, with Zhu Xingxing interlocking her fingers and squeezing the air out of her gloves before beginning to examine the slippers.
Underneath the shoe cabinet, there was a pile of slippers, only one pair of red ones that looked smaller. Zhu Xingxing picked them up to check the soles, and then set them aside, these soles obviously had traces of sampling.
Zhu Xingxing began to check each pair one by one. After looking at all the slippers on the ground, none had milk stains. Zhou Ning frowned slightly, now somewhat doubtful as to whether his speculation was going in the right direction.
Just then, Zhu Xingxing opened the shoe cabinet and found more slippers inside; these were thicker cotton slippers. Despite the strong smell of sweaty feet, she leaned in close and sniffed around, then let out a ’huh’.
Zhou Ning quickly squatted down and followed Zhu Xingxing’s gaze.
"Did you find the smell?"
Zhu Xingxing glanced at Zhou Ning with a hint of grievance.
"Boss, are you using me as a sniffer dog?"
Zhou Ning felt a bit embarrassed, but before he could respond, Zhu Xingxing was already laughing as she pulled out a pair of slippers and pointed at something shiny:
"Look what I found?"
Zhou Ning glanced at it; it seemed to be a metal chain with two butterfly knots, using the words often used by Xia Momo, it was bling-bling and looked very flashy. But was this a decoration for slippers?
"What’s this? The slippers look very tacky; was this deliberately attached?"
Zhu Xingxing shook her head and raised the slippers.
"I was taking blood from Ye Chengchen at the time, and Mr. Zhao had trimmed her nails for her. I remember she had something like this on her nails, but one was missing from the left hand. It seems it scratched here. Oh! Boss, there’s a milk scent inside the shoe!"
Zhou Ning was a bit excited and looked down, but he couldn’t see any traces of milk with the naked eye.
"Are you sure?"
